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Artimus Devaneaux (Warhammer 40,000)
Artimus Devaneaux's reputation for being an evil lunatic does not end in the Star Trek universe. For many years, Joshua Underwood has used Artimus in the wargaming universe of Games Workshop's Warhammer 40,000. In that dark interpretation of the far future, Artimus is a Daemon Prince of Chaos Undivided, unswervingly loyal to Warmaster Abaddon the Despoiler. Origins of the Devaneaux Family's Treachery During the Horus Heresy, the entire Imperium of Mankind was split in two as forces declared their allegiances: the loyalists, to the Emperor of Mankind, a powerful immortal man who had united the lost "tribes" of Humanity; the traitors, to the Emperor's most trusted commander, Warmaster Horus, Primarch of the Luna Wolves - renamed the Sons of Horus after his victorious destruction of an Ork empire during the Ullanor Crusade. Of the eighteen Space Marine Legions, nine - the Sons of Horus, Emperor's Children, World Eaters, Death Guard, Thousand Sons, Word Bearers, Iron Warriors, Night Lords and Alpha Legion - followed Horus for a variety of reasons, while the other nine - the Ultramarines, Dark Angels, Blood Angels, Space Wolves, Raven Guard, Salamanders, White Scars, Iron Hands and Imperial Fists - remained at the side of the Emperor. During the early part of Horus' campaign against the Emperor, which would spark a bloody civil war that has never been matched before or since, an Imperial Army general from Reydovan Prime was approached by the Warmaster and Ezekyle Abaddon, the First Captain of the Sons of Horus, shortly before the Istvaan III incident. The Reydovan troopers felt abandoned by the Emperor and the Space Marines, and it did not take a lot of coaxing to convince them to turn to Chaos. The general, Aurelian Devaneaux, branded the symbol of the Warmaster, the Eye of Horus - an unblinking eye at the center of the eight-pointed star of Chaos - into the palm of his right hand, and vowed that his descendants would do the same for generations to come. Aurelian's son, Lucian, was stationed on Terra itself when he received the message from his father after the massacre on Istvaan V, asking him to join Horus' crusade against the Emperor. Disheartened, Lucian went before the Emperor and informed him that Aurelian had betrayed them; the Emperor replied that he would know what to do when the time came. The Emperor knew, once he realized that a full half of his Legions had betrayed him, that Horus' ultimate objective would be Terra. Aurelian and Lucian battled one another during the Siege of the Emperor's Palace, the final battle of the Heresy, as all hell broke loose around them. Kicking the daemonblade from Aurelian's hand, Lucian picked it up and - with a quick flick of his wrist - decapitated his father. This act, combined with the use of the daemon weapon, completely shattered Lucian's soul; his picking up the sword had burned the Eye of Horus into his right hand, the hand that had wielded the sword...just as Aurelian had branded his own right hand in loyalty to the Warmaster. Killing his own father with the weapon that Aurelian had wielded also served another purpose - it marked Lucian as a servant of the Dark Gods. Shown the power Chaos offered, Lucian accepted it gladly - having resisted it all the way to the end. When Horus was defeated by the Emperor in single combat, Lucian rallied his father's followers - which became known as the Sons of Devaneaux - and departed, venturing to the Eye of Terror along with the defeated Traitor Legions. They remained loyal to the Sons of Horus, which became known as the Black Legion, and fought many wars alongside the Warmaster's former praetorians - including the battle against the Emperor's Children to destroy the stolen body of Horus. Millennia later, the Sons of Devaneaux had become shadows of their former glory, but Lucian had made a prophecy after the Heresy - a son of Devaneaux would be born a powerful psyker. He would lead them to victory by reclaiming their homeworld of Reydovan Prime, which had become an Imperial fortress after the remaining Chaos insurgents were arrested and publicly executed by Lord Governor Ignatius Burghley, the first administrator of Reydovan Prime after the Heresy. In 570.M41, that chosen son was born - Artimus himself. The Cult of the White Hand For the next five decades, Artimus gathered his powers, training under Zaraphiston, the personal sorcerer of now-Warmaster Abaddon, the Despoiler of Worlds. Then in 620.M41, Artimus rallied the remaining Sons of Devaneaux and created the Cult of the White Hand. Both cultists and Chaos Space Marines followed the crazed sorcerer as he cut a path of death and destruction, his very tread desecrating the earth, and he became known as Artimus the Defiler and the White Hand on many worlds in the Imperium - including Reydovan Prime. In 674.M41, Artimus began a twenty-year war on Reydovan Prime that still left the world completely ruined - the survivors, including elements of Grand Master Underwood's Grey Knights, were forced to relocate to the planet's moon, Serenia. After leaving Reydovan Prime a shattered wreck which - even three centuries later - was never truly repaired, Artimus was elevated to Daemonhood by the Dark Gods. He was given a terrifyingly powerful form, immense wings and a fierce visage that caused all enemies to quake in fear. Made for him in the daemonforges of the Eye of Terror was the Sword of the White Hand, a powerful daemonblade with a hilt created from the melted-down bones of his enemies and a silver, runic blade. The Thirteenth Black Crusade At the close of the 41st Millennium, Abaddon the Despoiler led the 13th Black Crusade out of the Eye of Terror, his ultimate objective being the center of Imperial resistance to Chaos incursions - the fortress world of Cadia. A joint force of the Grey Knights and the Cadian Gate Crusade of the Black Templars, under the joint command of the Crusade's Marshal and Grand Master Underwood, made the difficult journey from Serenia to Cadia in order to combat the Despoiler's legions. Underwood's strike cruiser, the Reydovan's Fury, was severely damaged when Abaddon's Planet Killer, a weapon built in the Eye of Terror before the Gothic War eight centuries earlier, destroyed the planet Macharia, one of the outer worlds of the Cadian system that had been the shrine world of Saint Macharius. The Reydovan's Fury crash-landed in the Tyrok Fields on Cadia itself, still stained red with the blood of Cadian loyalists and the Volscani Cataphracts, who had betrayed the Cadians in the opening moves of the campaign and been put down by Lord Castellan Ursarkar Creed. Immediately upon stepping out of the wreckage, Underwood and his warriors, along with the Black Templar Marshal and his Sword Brethren, were ambushed by Artimus and a group of Black Legionnaires the Despoiler had granted to the Daemon Prince. With his duty as a member of the Ordo Malleus clear, Underwood met Artimus in single combat. Momentarily gaining the upper hand, Underwood had stabbed his holy blade, the Sword of Reydovan, deep into Artimus' arm. Though the wound greatly pained him, the Daemon yanked his arm back - thus disarming the Grand Master - and pulled the blade from his shoulder. In contempt, Artimus snapped the blade in two like a twig and tossed it aside. Before Underwood could raise his storm bolter, Artimus' daemonblade had severed the Grand Master's arm. The Daemon Prince then grasped the weaponless Grand Master in the long taloned fingers of his left hand. With a crushing squeeze, Artimus completely snapped Underwood's body in half, much like he had done to the Grand Master's sword, and just as contemptuously tossed him aside. When the Black Templar Marshal attempted to attack the Daemon Prince, Artimus decapitated him with his runic blade. Grief-stricken, the senior survivors - the Black Templar Sword Brother Saavedro and Underwood's lieutenant, Brother-Captain Tyrael - rallied their men to retrieve the bodies of their fallen leaders and make their escape from Cadia. Tyrael and Saavedro both knew that if they died, the future of their crusade in the name of the Emperor would die with them. The Reydovan's Fury's engineers managed to restore enough power to make the ship airborne again, the hull breaches sealed and the engines operable. Tyrael himself gave the order for all the survivors of Underwood's company, as well as of the Cadian Gate Crusade. Both the bodies of the Grand Master and the Crusade Marshal were retrieved, as was the shattered Sword of Reydovan. With Artimus' forces pounding at them, the Reydovan's Fury took off and made its way, limpingly, back to Serenia. Saavedro, unanimously elected Marshal of the Crusade and confirmed by High Marshal Helbrecht, took the blade of the Sword and forged it into an axe, which he called the Axe of Judgement. He chose to wield it along with his power fist, eschewing a pistol in favor of fighting in close quarters. Tyrael took the hilt, and a new blade was attached to it and psychically attuned to Tyrael's mind. Thus did the new Marshal and the Brother-Captain - who would become Grand Master himself, the last recommendation made by Underwood before his death - make their pact with the two parts of Underwood's broken sword, to defeat the Defiler once and for all. Current Location Presently, the Daemon Prince Artimus Devaneaux has returned to his powerbase in the Eye of Terror, rallying his army in another assault - this time, to defeat Underwood's successor and the new Crusade Marshal once and for all. Devaneaux, Artimus